Fading Memories
by Bellatrix567
Summary: "I show not your face, but your heart's desire." The Death Eaters and Wormtail take a look into the Mirror of Erised.


**Just a short drabble I did about the Death Eaters and the Mirror of Erised. It's told in Wormtail's perspective, because he doesn't get a lot of say-so in most of my stories, and it's a little less obvious than the others what he sees.**

Wormtail still wasn't sure exactly how he'd gotten in the room. The nearly empty room, save for six people and a snake, the room everyone was undoubtedly waiting their turn to enter. Somehow, it was now the Death Eater's 'Inner Pizza Party Circle' alone in the room - or, as others called it, the inner circle plus the rat and the werewolf.

Wormtail turned his attention back to the Dark Lord, who had again began to speak, his left hand caressing his silver one.

"...taken a great many risks to attain this," the Dark Lord was saying, gesturing a cloth-covered something behind him. Three of the Death Eaters in front of him appeared to be listening with utmost attentiveness, almost anticipation, while Snape's face remained an emotionless mask. Wormtail felt himself take a shuffling step to the side, even as his eyes flitted away from Snape's profile.

With a flourish, the Dark Lord's spidery fingers flicked the cloth away, revealing a tall, elaborately framed mirror. Wormtail couldn't as of yet see his own reflection from his in-the-shadows position behind Fenrir Greyback.

Bellatrix let out a little 'oh' of surprise upon seeing her own reflection. What it was, Wormtail knew not what, but she glanced to the side before returning her eyes to the mirror. Lucius Malfoy, too, was gazing his fill and looking strangely pleased. Snape, on the other hand, blinked once before stepping farther into the shadows, out of range of the mirror.

"The Mirror of Erised," the Dark Lord said, "'I show not your face, but your heart's desire,'" he traced a pale finger along the backwards script inscribed across the top of the mirror.

That took Wormtail a moment or two to figure out; by the time he had, Greyback looked as if he was ready to shove Lucius and Bellatrix out of the way to get his own look at the mirror. But he wouldn't - it wasn't his rank. No, the rat and the werewolf would have to wait for the purebloods to have looked their fill before they got a chance.

It was funny how Wormtail's Animagus form lowered his rank - it should have been seen as an accomplishment. Not everyone was able to transform into an animal at will, much less at the age of fifteen. Well, maybe if Wormtail had got something better, like a dog or a deer, he would be respected. But the animagus form was supposed to represent your inner nature. Wormtail was a rat.

However, a rat might serve him well, this time at least. He didn't have to wait for the two purebloods to move out of the way; without a sound, Wormtail shrunk down to his rat form. Nose twitching, he skittered between feet, carefully avoiding the black boots that belonged to Snape - it was too easy to accidentally step on a small rodent. Wormtail scampered around Lucius' well-polished shoe and raised himself up on his haunches to look in the mirror.

What he saw took him aback. Wormtail hadn't thought beforehand of what he might desire most in the world, but he had expected something along the lines of money, power, popularity. To be the most celebrated Death Eater, perhaps, or to be the Dark Lord himself.

What Wormtail hadn't expected was to see a deer, a dog and a wolf all standing around him. He blinked, glancing down at his paws, then inevitably looking to either side to make sure his friends hadn't reincarnated around him. But of course they hadn't - and Remus wouldn't be in wolf form, anyway; Greyback was proof of that. Wormtail raised his eyes to the mirror once more. There was Sirius, Remus and James - his fellow Marauders grinned back at him.

Behind Wormtail was the sound of a heavy body hitting the floor. The rat jumped, instantly shying away as he caught sight of the gigantic snake, appearing even larger in his current form. But Nagini paid him little notice; her eyes trained towards Snape, then turned to the mirror. Wormtail wasted no time in scurrying away from the snake.

He shouldn't be so surprised, the rat thought as he made his way to a corner opposite Snape's. Wormtail's life was hell here, being constantly mocked and shunted to the side. Animagus was looked upon as synonymous with animal - he was treated worse than Greyback. He couldn't run away, of course, and even if he did, where would he go? Another twelve years in hiding as a rat? Sirius and Remus hated him now; there would be no home waiting for him with the Order.

So of course Peter Pettigrew missed his school days. He missed smiling and laughing. He missed those full moon nights when they would all go adventuring through Hogsmeade. He missed having _friends_. No one had friends in the Death Eater circle - even those who were direct family rarely trusted each other.

But his old life had fallen apart, been broken when the Dark Lord forced him to join the ranks of Death Eaters. He'd been welcomed with open arms when the Death Eaters heard they were gaining another spy. Wormtail had been forced into revealing information about James, valuable information, then forced to frame Sirius for murder. Who knew what happened to Remus in those twelve years. It was all he had to do to survive.

_I didn't mean to! I never meant for it all to happen that way!_ Wormtail quickly brushed the thoughts from his head - the Dark Lord could read minds. But it hardly mattered. What was done was done.

Peter's school days had all but faded into a dream by now.

**I'm thinking about writing a couple more chapters (for Severus and Bellatrix and Nagini), but this can stand on its own. Wormtail's interesting to write... pathetic, self-pitying and utterly loathable, but interesting. **


End file.
